After Ethereum's recent Shapella upgrade, the staking platform Agility enjoyed an initial surge in total value locked (TVL) and AGI token price. However, these key metrics have since tumbled dramatically.
The Shapella upgrade made it more attractive to stake ETH by enabling users to unstake their assets. Agility LSD, a project that benefited from the upgrade, saw its TVL skyrocket to a peak of $487 million last month, up from zero when its contracts launched earlier in April. However, TVL has since plunged 99% to a mere $6 million, according to data from DefiLlama.
Agility's stETH staking pool, once holding over 141,000 stETH valued at $293 million, has dwindled to about 3,200 stETH tokens worth approximately $5.7 million, as per Nansen's data. Furthermore, the price and trading volume of AGI, the protocol's native token, have both dropped by over 99%, CoinGecko data reveals.
Agility's Discord admin, Nook-Stealth Cooking, attributed the TVL drop to the cessation of rewarding farmers, a decision made at the community's request. However, TVL, token price, and trading volume were already declining before May 10 when Agility announced the pause in staking rewards.
Nook-Stealth Cooking also suggested that meme coins, which have gained attention recently, could be contributing to the decrease. While meme coin Pepecoin (PEPE) has indeed surged to a $1 billion market cap, Agility has suffered significantly more than other staking platforms. The top 10 liquid staking protocols by TVL have seen an average TVL drop of around 10% in the past week, a much smaller percentage change than Agility's.
CoinGecko still warns users on the AGI token page that the smart-contract owner can mint new tokens, urging caution.
